Cat's Spirit
by bipolarweeb
Summary: "I may have kind of sort of accidentally adopted four kittens today" "How do you accidentally adopt four kittens?"


This came to me after I redownloaded Neko Atsume after a loooooong time. Enjoy and drop me a comment! Follow me on Tumblr at bipolarweeb!

"Don't be mad."

Those are the words that meet Kyo the moment he closes the door after getting home from the dojo.

He startles at the abrupt sound of her voice, turning from the door to face his wife, who is sitting stick straight on the edge of the couch. She anxiously taps her fingers on her thighs and it's clear she's been waiting for him to get home.

He raises an eyebrow as he slowly walks over to her.

He gauges by the look on her face that whatever she's about to tell him isn't bad per se, so he doesn't immediately start freaking out. She doesn't look particularly panicked or worried—maybe just a little bit guilty?

"And why would I be mad, exactly?" he asks her cautiously, sitting his backpack down and taking a place next to her. She takes his hands as soon as he sits down.

"Kyo," she sighs before looking in his eyes, the scrunch in her brow serious. "You know how we always talk about how family is so important?" she asks him.

At her words a small smile tilts Kyo's lips. A few different faces flash through his mind; her, Kazuma, and as much as he doesn't want to admit it, a majority of the rest of the Sohmas, and even Hana and Uo.

"I'm not sure where you're going with this, but yes," he says, eyebrows furrowing just a little bit.

She nods, eyes straying to their conjoined hands. "And you know that family needs to stick together through the good and the bad. Because they're the ones you can count on to be there through everything, no matter what."

He nods slowly, but he knows confusion is probably clear on his face. "Yes, Tohru. But what does this have to do with anyth-"

"I may have kind of sort of accidentally adopted four kittens today."

Kyo blinks. Out of every possible thing he was guessing she was going to say, that definitely wasn't one of them.

"Wait," Kyo closes his eyes and scrunches his face in confusion, "How do you _accidentally_ adopt four kittens?"

She looks down at their joined hands. She lets one of his go to sheepishly scratch the back of her neck before tugging some hair behind her ear.

"It was _kind of_ an accident," she mumbles.

When she looks back up, his eyebrows are raised and he's looking at her expectantly for an explanation.

"Kyo," she huffs out a breath of air and turns her body to face him more directly.

She squeezes his hands a little bit tighter. "I was volunteering at the animal shelter and I was looking around at the cats and I got to this one holding area where four little babies were piled on top of one another, sleeping, in the most adorable cuddle puddle I'd ever seen. I figured they had to be new if I'd never noticed them before, so I went to ask about them.

"Kyo," she says his name again and her eyes begin to shine. She grips his hand harder. "They're all siblings and their mom got hit by a car. And it turns out they were feral cats and didn't have an owner so the person who found them took them to the shelter."

Her face crumples a little bit as she says this, and he knows hearing that must've broken her heart on the spot.

"And Kyo, I couldn't just leave them. I knew the odds of all of them getting adopted together were close to zero and I just couldn't let their little family be separated! The shelter told me they're only around three months old."

Kyo sighs before pulling his wife into a hug. "Okay, I get it. You saw them and your heart was too big to say no," he pulls back from her with a small smile on his face. "That's definitely something you'd do, so I'm can't say I'm too surprised. I should've known you'd be bringing animals home when you started volunteering."

She grips the front of his shirt as she pulls back and her eyes grow big as she says, "So you're not mad?"

Kyo chuckles a bit and knocks a knuckle on the side of her head. "Of course not."

"Really?" The smile that takes over her face makes butterflies flutter in Kyo's stomach, and he's again reminded of how amazing the woman he married is.

He nods. "So where are they, anyway?" he asks, looking around the den a bit, and looking back at her when it's clear they aren't anywhere in the room.

"Come on!" she stands up, his hand in hers, and begins leading him to the bathroom.

She places her free hand on the doorknob. She looks at him, still smiling. "They're kind of loud," she giggles a bit, "Just so you know."

As soon as the door opens, Kyo is greeted with the kind of high-pitched wailing meowing one could only associate with kittens that feel they have been left alone and neglected for far too long—which probably meant it had been about ten minutes since Tohru last checked on them.

Four tiny balls of fluff rush to the entrance of the bathroom to greet them; two completely black, and two gray tabbies with tiny fuzzy stripes.

Tohru drops to her knees on the floor, plucking one of the kittens up and cuddling it in her arms. Kyo slowly sits down beside her. The loud meowing of the kittens stops when they realize the two people in front of them are there to give them attention.

Upon sitting on the ground, Kyo is immediately swarmed by three sets of tiny paws trying to clumsily climb their way into his lap.

He lifts his hands, not knowing what to do as the kittens scramble to climb on his legs. After they settled, all three of them satisfied to be laying somewhere in his lap, Kyo gently lowers his hands to scratch at two of the kittens' ears. The loud purring that fills the room makes him smile.

"See?" Kyo looks over at Tohru, her smile wide, and the kitten she scooped up blinking sleepily in her arms, clearly content. "They like you, Kyo!" she giggles, "Not that that surprises me very much."

He rolls his eyes at her words, but can't keep the small smile off of his face. He moves his hand to scratch under the kitten's chin.

"So we can keep them?" Tohru asks, as if he could say no to her.

He places an arm around her shoulders carefully so not to jostle any of the cats. He pecks her cheek. "Yeah, we can keep them."

The next day, Tohru comes home after grocery shopping, not willing to admit how worried she was about leaving the kittens home with Kyo for a few hours. She knew everything would probably be fine, but that didn't stop her from worrying Kyo might get overwhelmed by the cats.

When she opens the door, she makes her way into the den, and the sight before her makes her smile so wide it hurts her cheeks.

Kyo is sitting on the couch, head tilted back, asleep. On each of his knees and on each of his shoulders is a tiny kitten, all of them snoozing.

Tohru quickly drops the grocery bags to fish her phone out of her purse; taking a few pictures before putting it back. She knew he wouldn't be able to say no to the kittens, but it still makes her heart incredibly happy to see how much they have all warmed up to each other. It was just so cute.

But, Tohru had already come to the conclusion that, while these kittens were absolutely adorable, the cutest cat she'd ever seen was and always will be her husband.


End file.
